Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Lands & Physical Planning today challenged delegates from member States to, to find solutions to turn domestic land challenges into opportunities; opportunities to determine optimal use of land and create wealth.

Prof. Kaimenyi said these during the official opening of the 51st Governing Council Meeting of the RCMRD in Kasari, Kenya.

He said “the ideals upon which RCMRD was established by our countries include the spirit of Pan-Africanism, desire for regional integration and mutual support through pooling of scarce resources from our respective countries to have a Centre of excellence that would in turn avail us with technical support, capacity development programmes and project implementation in the fields of geo-information and natural resources management.”

The Cabinet Secretary continued: “Indeed, the need for our countries to establish secure and authentic land tenure systems, to create robust national spatial data infrastructures and national land information management systems cannot be overemphasized. These are platforms upon which our countries can make strategic informed development decisions, inspire investor confidence and engender harmonious co-existence of our peoples through sustainable land reforms.”

On his part, Jean Claude Musabyimana, the RCMRD Governing Council Chairperson and PS Ministry Land and Forestry, Republic of Rwanda congratulated member States saying, “Having an important center like RCMRD is an opportunity for our countries especially in the era of knowledge driven economies and social welfare. We all know that accurate remote sensing and geospatial data are important source of information to our daily fighting to adapt ourselves to the changing climate and to well plan for actual and future generations.”

He added that the center has been playing an active role in introduction of technologies, development of tools and maintenance of systems and equipment meant for GIS, remote sensing and all mapping support to our respective countries. “We thank the visionary and fore-sighting management of the Center, and we thank the staff of RCMRD for their dedication to the development of mapping art for resources development in all countries members.”

He enumerated the achievements of the Centre, “We are proud that during the year 2017, RCMRD continued its core mission to “promote sustainable development in the member states through generation, application and dissemination of geo information and allied ICT services and products”. A lot has been achieved including the provision of technical services in all countries members as approved in the annual work plan, capacity and capabilities development in countries members and more than 700 people were trained and advisory services render to member States.

On his part the Director General Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza said, “Thank you so much for reserving this week for us despite the obvious heavy schedules you have in your countries. We never take this for granted. This is a very important epoch in our work calendar as it marks the point at which we report back on the assignment you gave us exactly a year ago as well as present to you what we plan to accomplish in the coming year. Your guidance in this regard will be most appreciated.”

Click below for more on what the Cabinet Secretary and the Chair of the Governing Council said: